Road to Atlantis, The

Following the coast on their summer vacation, the Henrys stop at the beach to break up the monotony of their road trip. Matty and Nat build castles in the sand as Anne and David take turns minding the children. A moment of distraction, a blink of the eye, and the life they know is swept away forever.

Like shipwrecks lost at sea, each member of the family sinks under the weight of their shared tragedy. All seems lost but life is long. There are many ways to heal a wound, there are many ways to form a family, and as the Henrys discover, there are many roads to Atlantis.

Advanced Praise

An intimate portrait of a family blown apart by a tragic accident — a grievous loss that can never be reversed, only borne. As sensitively as a surgeon, Robillard traces the impact of that terrible moment on each of his characters, and we watch, breathless, as each finds their own way to heal.

Merilyn Symonds, author of The Paradise Project

Leo Brent Robillard's The Road to Atlantis is a poignant, resonant tale of a family's dissolution following the death of their daughter. In gorgeous, gripping prose, he explores how individuals cope with tragedy and how grief sifts through the generations until it can finally settle and heal. This is a novel that echoes with human emotion and meaning and that deserves to be read.

Lauren Carter, author of Swarm

Reviews

A great read, beautifully constructed.

Sean Wilson, CBC All in a Day book panel

At fewer than 250 pages, this brief novel packs more emotional wallop than many books twice or three times its length.

Stacy Madden, Quill & Quire

I loved this book, it’s depiction of real people who are so thoroughly tied to the world, although there are certainly moments at which they might not want to be. The Road to Atlantis is an engrossing read, the reader swept along by its pace, and as amazed at what time can do as its characters are.